Rumor UPDATED: Monorail Hours Cut

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
He’s been correct about all the cuts so far..



Some mention they do this in the summer normally due to heat, is that true?

Update:

 
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oo_nrb

Well-Known Member
The monorail often closes in high heat. With Southern California entering the hottest parts of the year, and the end of the fiscal year demanding budget cuts, this feels like a rather tactical compromise. Guests who primarily use the service (hotel Guests coming in and leaving the park) are still able to use it, and the operations team avoids leaving it open during periods of lower ridership (and periods with the very high possibility of the attraction closing for most of that time anyway) to meet the budget cut demands.

If these hours stick around past the start of the new fiscal year, and during cooler temperatures, that should trigger some concerned responses.
 

oo_nrb

Well-Known Member
They should just pull a Disneyland Paris at this point and give certain rides operating hours... Maybe just close Disneyland on Mondays again...
Many attractions at Disneyland already have operating hours outside of park hours. The Main Street vehicles, the Horse-Drawn Streetcars, and almost everything on the Rivers of America come to mind.
 

WDW Pro

Well-Known Member
This is one of those times where I see a new thread, remember that I already posted about this, and get nervous that I posted something that wasn't public yet thinking it was...

A very, very wise decision from WDI at this point would be to get rid of this convoluted name (Millenium Falcon: Smuggler's Run), and just rename the ride "Kessel Run". Have the story be that you've been hired to try to beat the original run in the Falcon. Pay whatever it takes to get Harrison Ford to record a video giving you tips and reminiscing about when he and Chewy did it originally. Fix the Engineer and Gunner positions so that they're meaningful and intuitive... enough so that guests aren't pulling their eyes from the screen to the buttons.



This is really the big story inside Disney that many people are missing. They were expecting at least 4 hour waits for MFSR at Disneyland for months, and they were ready for Boarding Pass throughout the summer. But regardless if that didn't materialize, what has them all deeply concerned is that the hotel bookings for the fall at WDW are not good. And what that means is that something is going on with this Star Wars expansion that may be a harbinger for some real course corrections. From Disney's perspective, a property that had seen its moment in the sun dissipate (Avatar) managed to pull in huge crowds for an incredible land that served up the best fast service in any park, gave the best ride in any park, and was incredibly immersive. And here's one of their absolute biggest properties they own not pulling in anybody to DLR after a larger budget was blown and some of the most valuable acreage on the planet was devoted to it. Add to that it looks like that narrative is continuing on to WDW and you've got a major problem that spans a lot of departments within the company. Maybe even moreso than Marvel, Star Wars is not a property that Disney can afford to fail; there is way too much invested in it.

They had more hype and longer lines for Frozen Ever After at Epcot, which was a reskin of Maelstrom and cost them a fraction of a fraction of SWGE. They're concerned and getting more concerned by the day. They're actively cutting seasonal employee hours, they're cutting back Monorail operation, they're cutting back vehicles on rides... they're literally doing everything at this point to save money.



There may be some repercussions within WDI, but they're a bit safe right now coming off of so many excellent executions of prior expansions. WDI is absolutely going to point their fingers at Lucasfilm and say "they pigeonholed us" with the requirement all the eggs be placed in a trilogy that had yet to even debut when plans were made.

What they have right now is the equivalent of Universal dropping 1.5 billion on a Harry Potter land, but instead of basing it on Harry Potter or the similar characters/settings, the park was forced to make a land for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It's still Harry Potter, but you'd be in big trouble basing a land on that part of the fiction.

I know I keep using this visual, but it's important because we're talking about numbers so big people don't understand (and then consequentially they think Disney's just fine if crowds stay the same or are even a little lower):

Disney Parks spent down the equivalent of 14 Mount Everests on the most valuable 14 acres they own. Disney Parks put down 11 Mount Everests on Hollywood Studios, basically locking in the park's ability to expand for the next decade. They built ONE Mount Everest to transform Animal Kingdom and draw crowds to the park, and it was wildly successful. They've invested about 25 Mount Everests, and incurred huge annual operating costs on Galaxy's Edge, and as of now there is no discernible Return on Investment.



Star Wars movies, park expansions, and streaming productions need at least tens of millions of consumers. Conventions and "SW Celebration" need thousands. But conventions and "Celebration" do not keep the franchise afloat... movies do. Toys do. Park expansions do. When you have Hasbro losing 11% of their stock value in the same year as TLJ and Solo because toy sales were far below projections, when you have Solo losing hundreds of millions of dollars, and when you have a billion dollar + expansion thus far not showing any signs of ROI, it's time to admit something serious is going on. You may believe Rise of Skywalker is tracking "very high", but Sony has one crown jewel left in their crown, and it's Jumanji. And they're putting it head-to-head against Rise of Skywalker. They wouldn't be doing that unless they smell blood in the water.

Everything is confusing and requires obtuse explanations until you drop the cognitive dissonance and accept that the narrative you held might not be the most accurate.
 

Curious Constance

Well-Known Member
I can't remember where I read this or what exactly I read, BUT I remember something about night Monorail hours getting cut. Like at a certain point of the day, it's no longer going to be round trips, just TL to DTD. And you can't ride from DTD to TL after that point.
 

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Hong Kong does this. Most of the park expansions like mystic manor, small world, grizzly gulch etc open late and close early, and thats on top of rhe park not opening until about 10:30
Yes, and the park closes at 8:30 most nights. About the only thing about HKDL that's frustrating.

DL isn't in the same boat as HK though. Let's hope this doesn't become a habit and is truly only temporary.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
WDW Pro do you really think it’s Star Wars? Because I think it may be parks that’s the problem. I seriously wonder if we have reached the tipping point with price hikes, nickel and diming and cutbacks (hours and entertainment.). For the first time in forever there has been no discounts made available for the fall, and DL blocked out all their AP, so those crowds of “value seaking guests” have just not booked trips because they don’t see the value in a full price visit.
 

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